There was a husky named Zeus, a golden retriever named Bucky, and a stocky Australian Shepard whose last trip to the groomer left him with a streak of bright blue fur across his black and white coat. 

There were about a dozen dogs at the Kimberly Perrott Memorial Dog Park on Friday afternoon, April 4. They ran after tennis balls, sniffed along the fence line, and walked figure-eights around their owners’ legs, soaking up a brief window of sunshine in a stretch of otherwise cloudy wet weather.

Courtney Borg threw a ball for a panting retriever while her own dog, a dark-colored golden named Bucky, lay staring at her with a jealous gaze.

Borg, a Riverside resident, is frustrated with the town’s decision to close the dog park for the next six months while crews renovate the ball fields at the western end of Haines Park. 

“I feel like it’s going to be hard because we’re moving into the summer and it’s a time of the year where we’re out more,” Borg said as she tossed the tennis ball toward the corner of the fenced-in dog park. “I mean, I’m out here year-round, it doesn’t matter, but it ends up being one of the few places, especially in the mornings, where I can play fetch with my dog. He doesn’t have a yard big enough to play fetch in, so it’s just nice to have some place where he can play fetch all the time.”

Borg said she brings Bucky to the dog park every day, sometimes twice a day. She wondered if town officials could work out an abbreviated schedule instead of shutting down the park entirely until October or November. She suggested the town allow people to use the dog park for an hour or so before the work starts each day.

“Between the hours of 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., like how the state beaches are where you can take dogs between certain hours. Just doing something like that would be beneficial,” Borg said. “At this point it’s just focusing on keeping the park open. It’s just such a nice community. We have a lot of people who come, especially in our early morning group. And it’s nice to have it open. Especially because there’s nothing else close by.”

Ashlee Cabral is president of the nonprofit group Friends of Barrington Dog Park. She has been attending Barrington Park and Recreation Commission meetings in an effort to keep the park open or at least minimize the duration of the closure.

“At this point now it’s down to April 15 to Oct. 1,” Cabral said, referring to the expected dog park closure. “I think that’s about six months. But part of that six-month time frame is once they plant everything and move the equipment out, then it’s to let the grass rest. I was like, ‘OK, the contractor was the one who was digging in his heels about not having the dogs here, but my thing is, when the equipment moves out, open up the park.’ It shouldn’t be a full six months. What is it, like eight weeks for grass to grow? 

“Really it (the dog park closure) should be four months. I’m trying to get them to scale it back, but I had the flu last week and I couldn’t make the park and rec meeting.”

A message on the town’s website states: “The dog park will be closed until November, and the athletic fields will remain closed through 2026 due to the necessary grass establishment process.” 

Cabral said she met with Barrington Town Manager Phil Hervey and another town official about a month ago and discussed the dog park closure. She suggested people park in a different location and access the dog park through trails in the Haines Park woods, entering the fenced-in enclosure through a rear gate. 

“I understand you don’t want dogs running through a construction site but we could park on Metropolitan, where there’s parking for the bike path, and use the trails and come in the back,” Cabral said. “We could use the additional parking in the lot across the street.”

The group of dog owners who visited the Kimberly Perrott Dog Park inside Haines Park last Friday also spoke about the town creating a temporary dog park during construction.

“Ideally it would be nice if we had a temporary dog park somewhere. Maybe over near the marina, in that flattened out tree area,” Cabral said, referring to the section of Haines Park located on the west side of Metropolitan Park Drive. “There’s great parking over there. It’s a nice quiet area. That would be ideal if they could just use temporary fencing. At least it would keep the dogs away from the construction site, not in the woods, because there are local people who walk their dogs through the woods. It may also help eliminate dogs running loose at the beach. They’re going to be somewhere, at some point. It’s just a happy medium — to find a place where the dogs can play but also keep them from running at large.”

‘Safer for everybody’

Heather Whitford moved to Barrington two years ago and bought a dog shortly thereafter. She said the dog park has been a great place for her to meet people who live in the area while exercising and socializing her dog.

“The reality is that dogs are social creatures. They need to interact with other dogs and people,” Whitford said, adding that her dog can become a bit destructive if she is not exercised. “I think there are going to be a lot of people who are going to have their dogs off-leash, whether it’s in the woods around here or someplace else. So I think it’s important there is at least some place, some space where dogs can be off-leash, and it’s enforced and it’s safer for everybody.”

Whitford said a temporary dog park would be a nice balance for a community that has some strict leash laws. 

“Barrington has done a lot to enforce leash laws around the town, and there are really no other areas where dogs can be off-leash in town of the Barrington right now,” she said. 

Whitford said that while the Kimberly Perrott Dog Park is a wonderful spot for dogs, it is also a great place for people. Whitford, who moved to Barrington from Washington, D.C., said the dog park offered her a chance to meet people in town, gain great tips about where to go for dog training or veterinary care, and beyond. 

She said she is hopeful that town officials can find an alternative to closing the dog park for the next six months. 

“I think there’s got to be some sort of middle ground solution. It’s just getting the right people around the table to talk together and find some sort of common ground,” Whitford said. “For example, if there’s no construction going on for an extended period of time, does it really make sense to keep the dog park closed? Can we look at using an alternate entrance over there or can we use parking down there. 

“There’s probably some middle ground. If funding is an issue, that’s also something that can be discussed rationally, right? If it’s too expensive for the town, maybe there’s a joint effort for fund-raising and people who are friends of the dog park can contribute… I think I’d just like to see some common sense and a good safe place for everybody.”

‘It’s terrible’

Evan Fitton visits the dog park four or five times a week. He lives in East Providence, but said there are not many places people can take dogs to run off-leash in the East Bay.

“I’m actually waiting for the dog park in Kent Heights to open up,” Fitton said, adding that he heard it could open up in the next couple months. “So I’m here all the time because I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Fitton said it is important for town officials to understand the value of places like dog parks. 

“It’s like putting a value on a library. This is like a library, more like symposium for dogs to come and socialize. It’s important for people to socialize too, especially after the pandemic. I think it’s super important for a place like this. A lot of these places, spaces are disappearing because they just don’t generate revenue and unfortunately we focus on that more than our community and strengthening our community,” Fitton said. 

Ryan Teixeira has been bringing his dog Zeus to the Barrington dog park for the last five years. He said it is a great space and questioned where people would bring their dogs once the park closes on April 15.

“It’s terrible, because there’s not a lot of places we can bring our dogs. And it’s kind of inconvenient,” he said, referring to the upcoming summer months. “Why couldn’t we just go through another (gate)? With the amount of people who have dogs in Barrington, you’d think they’d have an alternate (spot). There’s a whole community out here. Everyone’s pretty friendly out here.”

Jean Bernstein sat in a plastic lawn chair near Teixeira. The Riverside resident has been bringing her dogs to Haines Park for about 30 years — the last 17 years, she has taken them to dog park. 

“First we’d just walk around with the dogs. In the past and stuff,” Bernstein said. “I’m a little bit upset. I feel that there’s no place for them to get their anxiousness out… We’ll walk them around. We’ll go to the beach. They (the town) might not like that, but dogs love to go to the beach. The town beach.” 

Cabral said the temporary closure of the dog park will leave “a lot of people” inconvenienced. 

“Dogs need to exercise. A leashed walk doesn’t really do it for a dog. They need to burn their jet fuel. A leashed walk is kind of ‘OK this boring, I need to burn fuel.’ It’s going to be interesting to see the alternatives people are going to try to find for their dogs.”